Two trials were conducted to evaluate changes in the quantity, quality, and moisture of available forage in the pasture, and shrub utilization by cattle during a 30-d late summer grazing period (Trial 1) and the effect of cow age (experience) on grazing distribution and diet composition (Trial 2) in mountain...
Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the influence of quality of
supplemental alfalfa quality on beef cattle consuming low-quality meadow grass (MG)
roughages. Fifteen steers (250 kg) were assigned randomly to one of three treatments: 1)
meadow grass (5.2% CP), no supplement (MNS); 2) meadow grass plus high quality
alfalfa...
Three studies were conducted to evaluate: 1) rotationally grazed forage for late-summer stockpiling; 2) effects of lactation on self-fed supplement intake; and 3) influence of cow age on hand-fed supplement intake. For the first study, treatments consisted of non grazed, 2X and 3X grazed. Crude protein of forage grazed 3X...
This study evaluated the influence of cattle stocking density on botanical composition of diet, diet preference, and cattle performance on the Zumwalt Prairie in Northeastern Oregon. In each of two years, 192 cow-calf pairs (549.27 kg, BCS = 4.89) and 48 yearling heifers (383.34 kg, BCS = 5.02) were stratified...
A study was conducted to determine effects of year and season on diet quality of beef cattle grazing northern Great Basin rangelands from 1990 to 1993. Forage quality was high early in the growing season, then declined as seasons progressed (P<.05). Plant chemical composition was higher early in the growing...
Four studies were conducted on late-summer diet quality and quantity of cattle (Bos taurus), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus hemionus), and elk (Cervus elaphus) in response to prior grazing by cattle and elk on mixed-conifer rangelands and on related research techniques. In our first study we assessed a photographic technique to...
Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of forage quality and supplemental undegradable intake protein (UIP) level on intake, digestibility, and performance of beef cattle. In Exp. 1, five ruminally cannulated steers (BW = 456 ± 6 kg) were used in a 6 x 5 incomplete Latin square with...
The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of cow age on grazing distribution relative to mountain riparian areas. In each of two years, sixty cow-calf pairs were stratified by age into the following treatments: 1) thirty first calf heifers (442 kg, body condition score (BCS)=4.5), and 2)...
The objectives of the experiment were to: 1) determine the relationship
between overstory canopy cover and ungulate herbivory on understory production
composition and diversity and 2) determine the effects of timber harvest, ungulate
herbivory and season of use on botanical composition and nutritional quality of
beef cattle diets. Three randomly...
Our objectives were to determine 1) the concentration of prostaglandin
F2α (PGF2α) in whole and extended bovine semen, 2) if concentrations of
prostaglandins in extended bovine semen are correlated to fertility, and 3) if PGF2α
administered at the time of artificial insemination would improve conception rate.
Concentration of PGF2α tended...
Three studies were conducted to evaluate different grazing systems on mixed conifer rangelands in eastern Oregon, and photo points and aerial photography was used to determine effects of 25 years of cattle grazing on stream channel changes and vegetation responses. The first study was designed to determine if grazing treatment...
Two experiments were conducted to study the efficacy
of feeding lasalocid to cattle on pasture on a three times
weekly basis. In experiment 1, 72 crossbred yearling
steers were stratified across a randomized block design of
12 pens including three replications of four treatments.
Treatments consisted of: (1) .45 kg...
One second GPS collars were deployed on cattle in three different pastures at three separate times during the year. In each riparian pasture the vegetative communities and stream bank edge were digitally mapped using low elevation aerial photographs and checked in the field for accuracy. A 5 m buffer zone...
Invasion by non-native plants into natural areas is an important component of global change that threatens biodiversity and ecosystem structure and function. Mountains are currently among the least invaded ecosystems, however, these biodiversity hotspots are increasingly under threat of exotic plant invasion. Evaluation of plant species distribution patterns in mountain...
An experiment was conducted to evaluate the influence of forest fuels reduction on the diet quality, botanical composition, relative preference, and foraging efficiency of beef cattle grazing at different stocking rates. A split plot factorial design was used, with the whole plots (3 ha) being fuel reduced or no treatment...
Properly functioning riparian systems are vital to the health of watersheds and provide an important forage and habitat resource for livestock and wildlife. Riparian grazing management strategies that are economically feasible and achieve environmental goals are needed by resource managers and livestock producers. The objective of this thesis was to...
The objective of this study was to evaluate changes in the quantity, quality, and moisture of available forage in a riparian pasture, and shrub utilization by cattle during a 30-d late summer grazing period. A riparian pasture (44.7 ha) in northeast of Oregon was grazed with 30 yearlings (419 kg,...
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of cow age on botanical composition of diets in mountain riparian areas. Treatments consisted of 30 first calf heifers, and 30 mature cows randomly assigned to four pastures (2 pastures/treatment, average 21.5 ha) in a two-year study with a cross...
Due to the increasing cost and concern of catastrophic wildfires in the Western United States, there is an increasing interest in fuels reduction projects. Fuel reduction treatments utilize various methods of thinning and/or prescribed fire to obtain desirable forest stand conditions. However, the effects of fuels reduction on ecosystem function...
Management and conservation of rangelands are increasingly concerned with maintaining productivity, species composition, and diversity of native plant communities. We estimated aboveground annual productivity, species composition, and diversity of a native bunchgrass type community across 1152, 0.5 m2 plots at The Nature Conservancy’s Zumwalt Prairie Preserve in northeastern Oregon. Standing...
Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), elk (Cervus elaphus), and cattle share rangelands throughout much of interior western North America. Considerable debate exists about the degree to which facilitation or competition occurs for forage between these three species (Nelson 1982, Wisdom and Thomas 1996, Miller 2002). Prior cattle grazing can have beneficial...
A study was conducted to determine foraging efficiency of cattle, mule deer, and elk in response to previous grazing by elk and cattle. Four enclosures, in previously logged mixed conifer (Abies grandis) rangelands were chosen, and within each enclosure, three 0.75 ha pastures were either: 1) ungrazed, 2) grazed by...
We assessed a photographic technique to estimate shrub yield and utilization of common snowberry, snowbrush, and heart-leafed willow found in mixed-conifer rangelands. We determined the correlation between green leaf area size (LA) and forage yield (Y) and compared plant utilization estimated by photographic technique (ULA) to actual utilization (UY) values....
Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the influence of a yeast-derived cell wall preparation (YCW) on forage intake and digestibility, ruminal fermentation characteristics, serum prolactin and prolactin stores, and milk production in beef cattle consuming high-alkaloid tall fescue straw. In Exp. 1, 16 Angus x Hereford ruminally cannulated steers (200...
The objective of this study was to quantify understory species diversity response to overstory manipulation of Blue Mountain eco-region forest. Forty nine ecological land units, including differing successional stages (sapling, pole, small saw, and saw log) and canopy cover (light and medium) in dry Grand Fir (Abies grandis), wet Grand...
The objective of this study was to quantify understory vegetation response to overstory manipulation of Blue Mountain eco-region forest. Forty nine ecological land units, including differing successional stages (sapling, pole, small saw, and saw log) and canopy cover (light and medium) in dry Grand Fir (Abies grandis), wet Grand Fir,...
We conducted a study to compare the bite-count technique (BC) of estimating forage intake and synthesized diet quality to direct estimates of diet quantity and quality with the use of the rumen evacuation technique (RE). We used four rumen-fistulated steers to evaluate both techniques. Four enclosures in a mixed-conifer rangeland...
The estimation of standing crop is important in the management of rangeland resources. Direct measurements by clipping, drying, and weighing of herbaceous vegetation are time-consuming and labor-intensive. Therefore, non-destructive methods for efficiently and accurately estimating standing crop are needed in rangeland forage management. We assessed a visual obstruction (VO) technique...
Published October 2001. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
An experiment was conducted to evaluate the influence of forest fuels reduction on diet quality, botanical composition, relative preference, and foraging efficiency of beef cattle grazing at different stocking rates. A split plot factorial design was used, with whole plots (3 ha) being fuel reduced or no treatment (control), and...
Landscape fire succession models (LFSMs) predict spatially–explicit interactions between vegetation
succession and disturbance, but these models have yet to fully integrate ungulate herbivory as a driver of
their processes. We modified a complex LFSM, FireBGCv2, to include a multi-species herbivory module,
GrazeBGC. The system is novel in that it explicitly...
Rangelands are significant providers of ecosystem services in agroecosystems world‐wide. Yet few studies have investigated how different intensities of livestock grazing impact one important provider of these ecosystem services—native bees. We conducted the first large‐scale manipulative study on the effect of a gradient of livestock grazing intensities on native bees...
Secondary plant succession and the accumulation of biomass and nutrients were documented at seven ruminant exclosures in Abies and Pseudotsuga forests variously disturbed by logging, burning, and grass seeding. Long-term (25 or more years) foraging by Rocky Mountain mule deer (Odocolleus hemionus) and Rocky Mountain elk (Genius elaphus) suppressed the...
Published May 1987. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Data is limited evaluating infrequent supplementation of urea or biuret to ruminants consuming low-quality forage (<6% crude protein). Therefore, a series of experiments were designed to compare the effects of daily (D) and alternate day (2D) supplementation of two non-protein nitrogen (NPN) sources (urea or biuret) to ruminants consuming low-quality...
Published June 2000. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Published July 1995. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Published November 2000. Reviewed December 2014. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Ventenata dubia L. (ventenata) is an introduced, winter annual grass that has recently been raising concerns across the Pacific Northwest Bunchgrass Prairie and the Palouse Prairie. It is well established now in pasturelands, croplands, and a variety of ecosystems including grasslands, sagebrush steppe, ponderosa pine forests and woodlands. Ventenata is...
Two studies were conducted to determine the factors influencing distribution of cattle on northeastern Oregon mixed-conifer forested rangelands. The objective of the first study was the quantification of differences in distribution of cattle of different ages. Beginning in 1991, and continuing through 2001, radio telemetry collars were placed on a...
Nine feeding trials and four laboratory scale experiments were conducted in this study. The study consisted of: (1) use of grass straw:corn juice (CJ) silages with fishmeal and/or alfalfa hay supplementation in beef heifers, sheep, pregnant dairy heifers, water buffaloes and Hereford cows; (2) use of cull onions:grass straw silages...
For the last fifty years, meadow foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis L.) has been invading native flood meadows throughout the Harney Basin in southeastern Oregon. The expansion of this grass species has been the result of its broad climatic requirements and ability to withstand drought while thriving in saturated soil conditions for...
Published June 1995. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Published June 1998. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Observed declines in native pollinator species worldwide has generated concern and focused research into the disturbances, past and present, which may have contributed to these losses. In grasslands, for example, habitat degradation and fragmentation from historical and current crop production and livestock grazing has left only a few remnants of...
